GREEK PARTHENON LECTURED UPON.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18575, 25 September 1928, Page 14

GREEK PARTHENON LECTURED UPON.

GLORIES OF ANCIENT STRUCTURE DESCRIBED. The Christchurch branch of the Classical Association met at Canterbury College last evening, when Dr H. D. Broadhead gave a lecture , . the art of the Parthenon. Mr Dobbin was in the chair. The lecture was illustrated by lantern slides. Dr Broadhead first dealt with the history of the Parthenon, showing slides of the structure in its ancient and present forms. When the Parthenon was completed in 438 8.C., Athens was at the height of its material and spiritual attainments, under the leadership of Pericles. Shortly after the beginning of the Christian era, the Emperor Justinian abolished the ancient Greek religion, and the Parthenon was dedicated to the Mother of God. certain structural alterations following. The fifteenth century saw the Parthenon turned into a mosque, while in 1687, the Turks using it as a powder magazine, the north and south sides were blown out. 1 1 again came into civilised hands when Lord Elgin began the removal of the remaining sculptures to the British Museum in 1792. Architecturally the Parthenon showed the fine artistic sense of the Greeks. The three main features were the metopes, the pediments-and the frieze. The metopes displayed the battles of the Greeks against the Amazons, the Centaur 9 and the Lapiths, with the battles of the Gods and the Giants. The subjects of the pediments were the conflict between Poseidon and Athena for the land of Attica, and the birth of Athena. The frieze was devoted to the great Panathenaic procession in honour of Athena. Pheidias was the greatest sculptor of the Greeks, and the magnificent works of the Parthenon were carried out under his direction by various hands. Most wonderful were the sculptures of horses, and the famous statue of Athena by Pheidias was kept in the PartheThe meeting carried a vote of thanks to Dr Broadhead, moved by Professor Pocock.